DESPITE the progressive legislation that allows for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community to be protected, homophobia still persists, especially in schools. This affects the mental health and livelihood of queer learners. 

On paper, South Africa is incredibly progressive when it comes to protecting the rights of the queer community. 

In May 1996, South Africa became the first jurisdiction in the world to provide constitutional protection to LGBTQ+ people, stipulated in the South African Constitution, which condemns discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation and other grounds.

Although our Constitution may not practice discrimination, it is still quite common amongst individuals who haven’t outgrown internalised homophobia. 

South African schools have seen persistent bullying and harassment aimed at queer learners, due to homophobia from fellow classmates and even teachers. 

The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) recently published a report titled “Barriers to Accessing Education for LGBTQIA+ Learners”, documenting the stories of queer learners and the challenges they face in schools. 

An attorney from the LRC, Muyenga Mugerwa-Sekawabe, discusses the reasoning and experiences which have lead to a number of LGBTQ+ learners taking their own lives due to persistent homophobia. 

“Queer learners [are] faced with bullying, both from staff members who are meant to have their best interests at heart, but also from fellow classmates as well. There’s also issues around school uniform being admitted to single-sex schools for transgender learners; further challenges transgender learners face in relation to sports (which has been a bit of a controversial issue) as well bathroom use,” says Mugerwa-Sekawabe. 

Based on their sexual orientation and gender non-conformity or gender identity, queer learners are more vulnerable to bullying as compared to their non-queer, heterosexual or cis-gendered peers, reads one research report. 

Teachers can also be responsible for the homophobia suffered by queer learners, while some face discrimination because of their own queer identities. 

In March 2017, a high school principle forced lesbian learners to come out to their parents, by sending them home with letters revealing their sexual orientation. The principle told critics it was nobody’s business how she chose to deal with “problems” at the school. 

Mugerwa-Sekawabe says while policies mandate that LGBTQ+ learners have certain rights, Department of Basic Education officials, at whatever level, who are homophobic can cause the most damage to queer learners.

“If those Department of Basic Education officials, at whatever level they are, were to have homophobic, prejudicial, queerphobic views, then it doesn’t really matter what the policy says, because those are the people in charge of schools.” 

The act of outing someone (disclosing an LGBT person’s sexual orientation or gender identity without their consent) can be detrimental because it is a violation of their privacy, and is a personal process.

It can be a difficult time for someone because of discrimination, homophobia, or potential marginalization from their families and their community at large, reads another report, and has even been linked to self-inflicted deaths. 

Homophobia in schools is also one of the reasons learners may drop out entirely. 

“Bullying leads to absenteeism in schools, it leads to people dropping out of schools and it’s definitely a major challenge which needs to be taken on. Even those learners who don’t drop out of school may face other psychological or mental trauma and issues, which may take a few years, [even] decades after they leave high school to finally grapple with,” explains Mugerwa-Sekawabe. 

If you or anyone you know is part of the LGBTQ+ community and is need of help, please contact the following resources: 

OUT: 012 430 3272PFLAG South Africa/Same Love Toti: 082 654 8635The Gay and Lesbian Network (GLN): 033 342 6165.The Pride Shelter: 021 423 2871. Sonke Gender Justice: 021 423 7088 / 011 339 3589.The Triangle Project: 021 712 6699. 

In an emergency please call LifeLine’s 24 Hour Counselling Line on 011 422 4242 / 0861 322 322 or the South African Depression and Anxiety Group’s (SADAG) Suicide Crisis Line on 0800 567 567. 

Careersportal

MATH and reading scores for America’s 9-year-olds fell dramatically during the first two years of the pandemic, according to a new federal study — offering an early glimpse of the sheer magnitude of the learning setbacks dealt to the nation’s children.

Reading scores saw their largest decrease in 30 years, while math scores had their first decrease in the history of the testing regimen behind the study, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the U.S. Education Department.

The dramatic setbacks, which erased two decades of progress in American test scores, reflect years of upheaval for the country’s education system. Schools shut down for months at a time amid COVID-19 outbreaks. Many children spent a year or more learning from home. Virus outbreaks among staff and students continued the disruption even after kids returned to the classroom.

The declines hit all regions of the country and affected students of most races. But they were most dramatic for the country’s most vulnerable kids. Students of color saw some of the steepest decreases, widening the racial achievement gap.

Much of the nation’s standardized testing didn’t happen during the early days of the pandemic, so the findings released Thursday gave an early look at the impact of pandemic learning disruptions. Broader data is expected to be released later this year as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation’s Report Card.

“These are some of the largest declines we have observed in a single assessment cycle in 50 years of the NAEP program,” said Daniel McGrath, the acting associate commissioner of NCES. “Students in 2022 are performing at a level last seen two decades ago.”

In math, the average score for 9-year-old students fell 7 percentage points between 2020 and 2022, according to the study. The average reading score fell 5 points.

The pandemic’s upheaval especially hurt students of color. Math scores dropped by 5 percentage points for white students, compared with 13 points for Black students and 8 points for Hispanic students. The divide between Black and white students widened by 8 percentage points during the pandemic.

Decreases were more uniform in reading: Scores dropped 6 points for white, Black and Hispanic students.

For Asian American students, Native American students and students of two or more races, there was little change in reading or math between 2020 and 2022, the study found.

The setbacks, especially among underprivileged kids, raised alarms in the education world. Denise Forte, interim CEO of the Education Trust think tank, called it “deeply disturbing.”

“Due to inequitable and unjust school systems, students who are the most underserved continue to struggle academically both before and during the pandemic,” Forte said. “Decision-makers at all levels have not done nearly enough to address the long-standing resource inequities that prohibit Black, Latino and students from low-income backgrounds from reaching their full academic potential.”

A national association of superintendents said the findings are disappointing but not surprising.

Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, said there’s encouraging evidence that schools are now investing in summer learning, mental health counselors and reading specialist. But experts have questioned whether schools are taking actions that are sweeping enough to address the magnitude of academic losses.

Geographically, all regions saw decreases in math, but declines were slightly worse in the Northeast and Midwest compared with the West and South. Outcomes were similar for reading, except that the West had no measurable difference compared with 2020.

Although it marks a sharp drop since 2020, the average reading score was 7 points higher than it was in 1971, and the average math score was 15 points higher than in 1978, the study found.

Overall, the results paint a “sobering picture” of schooling during the pandemic, said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the NCES.

Federal officials say this is the first nationally representative study to compare student achievement before the pandemic and in 2022, when most students had returned to in-person learning. Testing was completed in early 2020, soon before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and in early 2022.

AP

CISCO South Africa has expanded its Women’s Tech Connection(WTC) initiative to Nigeria to encouraging female participation in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields and provide women with a tech skills training programme.

Established in 2019 and spearheaded by Cisco South Africa, the initiative is part of the IT and networking giant’s global vision to help address the gender gap in the ICT sector by nurturing more women in the sector to become Cisco-certified engineers.

The design of the programme is to encompass a 360-degree professional development approach for aspiring network engineers.

According to Cisco, the goal is to produce women Cisco Certified Internetworking Experts (CCIE) in Africa, a skill-set that has been identified by the national government of SA as a scarce skill on the labour market.

According to the World Economic Forum, women continue to be dramatically under-represented in STEM fields and while female participation in Sub-Saharan Africa’s labour force has reached 61%, women only make up 30% of professionals in the tech industry.

Cisco recently celebrated the graduates of the local WTC initiative as part of its commitment to supporting regional talent and inclusivity.

“Never before has it been more important to spotlight women in the fields of technology and engineering on the African continent. With so much innovative potential being lost through a lack of representation and being positioned to institute real change and provide the necessary resources, Cisco is committed to helping bridge the gender divide in this important sector,” says Smangele Nkosi, GM for South Africa at Cisco.

“The success of WTC has resulted in Cisco expanding the initiative beyond South Africa. It is now active in West Africa. As of 2022, WTC has six chapters located in the South African provinces of Gauteng, Western Cape, Northern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal. Our current base in West Africa is in Nigeria which is a central hub for us in the west of Africa.”

Certifications offered by the programme include a wide range of networking courses.

In its three-year history, the programme has produced two CCIEs and has built a talent pool of qualified certified engineers that multi-national organisations can hire from, notes Cisco.

WTC, to date, has 108 members, which include eight certified instructors, seven DevNet associates, and 93 participants working towards CCIE, Cisco Certified Network Associates, or Cisco Certified Network Professional certifications.

Elelwani Munzhedzi, co-founding member of WTC adds: “We are helping to put women at the forefront of their industries. Our goal in West Africa is aligned to the South African strategy, aimed at providing the region with technical expertise and resources into that highly competitive labour market. We have applied the same talent growth strategy adopted for the Sub Saharan region.”

ITWEB

CULTURAL icon, singer, song writer and traditional instrumentalist , Latozi ‘Madosini’ Mpahleni was awarded with the Honorary Doctorate in Music by Rhodes University in recognition of her contribution to the South African cultural landscape and traditional music.

Rhodes University Vice-Chancellor Professor Sizwe Mabizela officially handed over a hood and gown to Dr Mpahleni, in full view of her family and the community at Mkhankatho village in Libode, outside Mthatha.

The robing formed part of a Van Toeka Af Living Legends Recognition event organised by the national Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. The event recognises and acclaims the living legends in the creative and cultural sector.

It is also intended to be a knowledge-sharing platform which offers guidance whilst motivating future generations.

Professor Mabizela and Music and Musicology Head of Department, Dr Boudina McConnachie, officially robed and hooded Dr Madosini.
Mabizela said: “In 2020, we honoured Gogo Madosini with the University’s highest honour, the degree of Doctor of Music (honoris causa). Due to COVID-19 and lockdown restrictions at the time, we could not celebrate this honour in the conventional way we always do. She is a worthy recipient, a formidable woman, a woman of substance, a woman of great dignity and humility and a doyenne of our cultural heritage. Today, we are delighted to have the opportunity to formally robe and hood Gogo Madisini and celebrate her with her family and community. It is no exaggeration that she has singlehandedly kept alive the South African heritage of Xhosa music through her performances and instruments.”

Department of Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa applauded Rhodes University for having honoured Dr Madosini and said: “I have been wondering that with so many universities in our country, why they do not see the need to honour Gogo Madosini while she is still alive. I am happy that Rhodes University saw it fitting to celebrate and honour her.”

Dr Madosini said: “Kangangoba ndinemincili yilento ndiyenzelweyo yi Rhodes University, ungasuke undibone sendikhala. Ndiziva ndingcangcazela, ndiphelelwa nangamandla ngenxa yovuyo olusentliziyweni yam. Bendingubani na mna, iqaba elingazange lawubona umnyango wesikolo? Noba ndingalala kobandayo, intliziyo yam ixolile ngento endiyenzelwe yi Rhodes University.” (The way I am so happy, I could start crying. I am shaking right now because of the joy in my heart. Who am I? An uneducated old woman who has never gone to school. Even if I could die, my heart is at peace after being honoured by Rhodes University in this way.)

Dr Madosini is recognised worldwide for her sustained and exceptional contribution to the Xhosa culture through the preservation and popularising of isiXhosa music bowels: uhadi, umrhubhe and isitolotolo.

“For her many years of distinguished and selfless service to our nation and its culture, it was proper and fitting that Rhodes University should honour Gogo Madosini by bestowing on her its highest honour. Our nation owes her an unpayable debt of gratitude for all that she has done to preserve, share and propagate our rich Xhosa cultural heritage of music. On behalf of our Chancellor, Justice Lex Mpati, our Council, Board of Governors and the entire Rhodes University community, I offer our heartiest congratulations to Gogo Madosi on this well-deserved recognition,” added Professor Mabizela.

Dr Madosini played her instruments accompanied by Rhodes University’s Ethnomusicology PhD student, Thandeka Mfinyongo. The Eastern Cape Member of the Executive Council for Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Nonceba Khontsiwe, was also in attendance together with traditional leaders.

“Gogo Madosini is a great inspiration for our nation. Siyi Yunivesithi sivuyela lento yokuthi sikwazi ukumwonga esaphila. Sine lunda kwaye siyazingca ngo Dr Mpahleni. Wanga uThixo wothando angamgcina, ukuze isizwe sincance kwelo bele lakhe libhonxileyo. Makudede ubumnyama kuvele ukukhanya, kube chosi, kube hele. (As Rhodes University, we are happy that we have honored her while she is still alive. We are greatly proud of Dr Madosini. May God keep sustaining her so that the nation can keep benefiting from her unparalleled knowledge. May darkness be dispelled and light shine),” said Professor Mabizela.

STAFF REPORTER|

As Braylon Price remembers it, he struggled with pretty much everything the first full school year of the pandemic. With minimal guidance and frequent disruptions, he had trouble staying on top of assignments and finishing homework on time.

It was so rocky his parents asked for him to repeat sixth grade — a decision they credit with getting him on a better track.

“At first I didn’t really want to do it,” said Braylon, now 13. “But then later in the year I thought it would probably be better for me if I did.”

The number of students held back for a year of school has surged around the country. Traditionally, experts have said repeating a grade can hurt kids social lives and academic futures. But many parents, empowered by new pandemic-era laws, have asked for do-overs to help their children recover from the tumult of remote learning, quarantines and school staff shortages.

Twenty-two of the 26 states that provided data for the recent academic year, as well as Washington, D.C., saw an increase in the number of students who were held back, according to an Associated Press analysis. Three states — South Carolina, West Virginia and Delaware — saw retention more than double.

Pennsylvania, where the Price family lives, passed a pandemic-era law allowing parents to elect to have a redo for their kids. The following year, the number of retained students in the state jumped by about 20,000, to over 45,000 students.

Braylon’s mother has no regrets about taking advantage of the new law.

“Best decision we could have made for him,” said Kristi Price, who lives in Bellefonte, in central Pennsylvania.

While the family’s two daughters managed to keep up with school despite limited supervision, Braylon struggled. He went back to in-person school for the first full academic year of the pandemic but it was “wishy-washy,” his mother said. Students were quarantined on and off, and teachers tried to keep up with students learning at home, online and in hybrid models. That winter, Braylon suffered a spinal cord injury from wrestling that forced him to go back to remote learning.

On his repeat of sixth grade, Braylon had an individualized education program that helped him build more focus. Having more one-on-one attention from teachers helped too. Socially, he said the transition was easy, since most of his friends had been in lower grades or attended different schools already.

Research in the education world has been critical of making students repeat grades.

The risk is students who’ve been retained have a two-fold increased risk of dropping out, said Arthur Reynolds, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Human Capital Research Collaborative, citing studies of students in Chicago and Baltimore.

“Kids see it as punishment,” Reynolds said. “It reduces their academic motivation, and it doesn’t increase their instructional advancement.”

But backers of retention say none of the research was conducted in a pandemic, when many children wrestled with Zoom lessons and some stopped logging in entirely.

“So many children have struggled and have had a lot of problems,” said Florida state Sen. Lori Berman, a Delray Beach Democrat. Berman authored a law aimed at making it easier for parents to ask for kindergarten to fifth graders to repeat a grade in the 2021-22 school year. “I don’t think there is any stigma to holding your child back at this point.”

Generally, parents can ask for children to be held back, but the final decision is up to principals, who make decisions based on factors including academic progress. California and New Jersey also passed laws that made it easier for parents to demand their children repeat a grade, although the option was only available last year.

In suburban Kansas City, Celeste Roberts decided last year for another round of second grade for her son, who she said was struggling even before the pandemic. When virtual learning was a bust, he spent the year learning at a slower pace with his grandmother, a retired teacher who bought goats to keep things fun.

Roberts said repeating the year helped her son academically and his friends hardly noticed.

“Even with peers, some of them were like, ‘Wait, shouldn’t you be in third grade?’ And he’s just like, ‘Well, I didn’t go to school because of COVID,’” she said. “And they’re kind of like, ‘OK, cool.’ You know, they move on. It’s not a thing. So it’s been really great socially. Even with the parent circles. Everybody’s just like, ‘Great. Do what your kid needs to do.’”

Ultimately, there shouldn’t be just two options of repeating a grade or going on to the next, said Alex Lamb, who has been looking at research on grade retention as part of her work with the Center for Education, Policy Analysis, Research and Evaluation at the University of Connecticut to help advise school districts.

“Neither of those options are good,” she said. “A great option is letting students move on, and then introducing some of these supports that are research-backed, that are effective and that allow for academic and social-emotional growth of students and then communities.”

In Pennsylvania’s Fox Chapel Area School District, two students were retained at the behest of educators, while eight families decided their students would repeat a grade. Another six discussed the new legislation with the school and ultimately decided against holding their students back.

“As a school district, we take retention very seriously,” Superintendent Mary Catherine Reljac said. She said the district involves parents, a team of educators, school counselors and principals to help decide what is best for each child.

Price says Braylon’s retention helped him obtain an individualized education program, or IEP. The special ed plan gave him more support as he navigated sixth grade again. When he thinks about the difference between rounds one and two of sixth grade, Braylon said he felt like the extra support was instrumental, noting he likes having one-on-one aid from teachers sometimes.

“In online school, you didn’t really do that,” he said. “You did the work and then you just turned it in.”

He doesn’t want to be given the answer, he said, but guided enough that he can figure it out on his own.

“I think because of the pandemic, we, as parents, were able to see how much he was struggling and we were able to recognize that he was barely keeping his head above water, and that he needed more help in order to be successful on his own,” Price said.

AP

THE Department of Basic Education is preparing to roll out the General Education Certificate which will be given to Grade 9 learners from the 2023 academic year.

A workshop was held by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to look into the progress of the General Education Certificate (GEC) which is currently being piloted at a number of selected schools around the country.

The GEC which will be given to Grade 9 learners and is expected to address the current issue of young learners who leave the education system each year without any national qualification, thus making it difficult for them to find jobs.

The Certificate is based on the three-stream model which includes the Academic, Vocational, Occupational and Technical pathway.

The Department says that the GEC is not an indication of the exit of learners from a learning pathway but that it offers better decision making for access to further learning after Grade 9.

During the workshop various recommendations were made, which include focusing on improving teaching, learning and assessment from Grade R to Grade 9.

Chief Director of National Assessments and Examinations at the department, Dr. Rufus Poliah says that the department is looking at a curriculum roadmap which shows the curriculum process and what the department needs to do in order to achieve their goal of improving teaching and learning.

He says that they intend to move away from assessing learners in order to evaluate their test scores and instead they want to move towards on assessment which focuses on learning.

With the introduction of the GEC, Dr Poliah says that the department will be: “Making sure that the assessment from Grade R to Grade 9 is not just about a Certificate but is about what the learner has acquired in terms of skills, knowledge, attitude and character. “
He says that if teachers are able to identify the gaps in learners’ knowledge holistically and address these gaps then the department would have done justice in terms of issuing a certificate at the end of Grade 9.

Dr. Poliah says that systemic challenges such as large class sizes and backlogs in the education system were discussed at the workshop and that these challenges need to be addressed in order to improve the quality of education.

STAFF REPORTER|

WENDY MOTHATA|

SOUTH AFRICA (SA) intends to enhance the teaching of robotics and coding in public schools through the establishment of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institute.

Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said the AI Institute is being established in partnership with institutions of higher learning, in particular the Johannesburg Business School of the University of Johannesburg and the Tshwane University of Technology, which are co-founder institutions together with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies.

“It is essential that we invest significantly to provide our youth with access to modern training, skill sets and formal education. To achieve this, our Department of Basic Education has introduced robotics and coding as school subjects in primary and high schools,” said Ntshavheni.

“At present, learners in over 1 000 schools are designing and producing robots both for gaming and to complete tasks the learners find tedious for human completion.”

“Next year, learners in these and additional schools that will join this category will compete in a National Robotics Development Challenge,” the Minister said on Thursday during the G20 Digital Economy Ministers Meeting in Bali, Indonesia.

Government’s focus on digital skills includes creating platforms to support and promote the ability of the youth, and small and medium enterprises, in particular start-ups to develop digital content.

“In this regard, South Africa will launch an App Store to be known as DigiTech on the 13 September 2022. We have undertaken to our sister countries within Africa to ensure that content producers from the rest of the Africa can have their Apps enrolled on the DigiTech App Store,” Ntshavheni said.

Bridging the digital divide

With technology changing how people work and live, Ntshavheni said governments have the responsibility to continue to use technology as a primary catalyst for change in the world that should advance accessible public services, inclusive growth, and sustainable development.

She noted that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the negative impact of the digital divide in human development in particular the poor.

“In South Africa and the majority of the developing world, in particular in Africa, where the poor remained unconnected, the poor were severely marginalised during the COVID-19 pandemic because they were excluded from accessing basic services such as education, health and ability to work,” she said.

“It is for this reason that we prioritised and concluded the licensing of the high demand spectrum and also secured the commitment of our telecommunications regulator to ensure that the Frequency Spectrum licence holders contribute towards the national broadband penetration objectives by connecting key public institutions such as schools, health facilities, and traditional authorities.”

“In addition, this year we will finalise the roadmap towards the deployment of 4G and 5G networks including to rural towns. We continue to work to attain the objectives of our South Africa Connect programme to ensure that we attain universal access to the internet by 2024,” the Minister said.

Government is also extending email addresses to all learners/students in public schools and their parents as part of requirements of basic e-learning.

INSIDE EDUCATION

THE KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education (DoE) has accumulated R468 million worth of debt owed to municipalities for services such as water, electricity, sewage and refuse removal from April 2021 to January 2022.

From the R468 million, R445 Million is owed by schools in the province while R23 Million is owed by the department itself.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KZN said that it tried to raise the alarm regarding financial mismanagement in teh department.

DA KZN Spokesperson on Education, Dr Imran Keeka said despite warnings of poor management of funds the department returned unused funds to the provincial treasury.

“The DA has consistently raised the issue of the poor management of funds by the DoE. That the province’s municipalities are being crippled as a result of such massive outstanding sums from KZN’s largest government department is shameful,” Keeka said.

“To aggravate the situation, the recent budget close-out report showed that the Department had areas of under-expenditure with the result that funds were returned to provincial treasury. These funds should have been re-directed – according to proper PFMA guidelines. In particular, they could have been used to pay outstanding domestic accounts of the numerous schools that have recently been disconnected,” said Keeka.

 According to the replies, KZN’s worst affected municipalities are|

· Ethekwini – with R372 Million outstanding;
· Msunduzi – R44.3million;
· Umgungundlovu at R15.8 million; and
· Ugu at R7.5 million.

The DA said it visited two schools in Msunduzi where water had been disconnected due to a municipal billing error and faulty procedures.

 “In all of these instances, schools and therefore learners suffer the most while the kleptocrats sit around twiddling thumbs.”

 The DA has now written to the former MEC with recommendations aimed at reducing domestic accounts.

These include;
• Changing ordinary light bulbs to LED’s;
• Installing solar panels where possible;
• Placing water restrictors on taps;
• Identifying and repairing water leaks; and
• Interacting with municipalities to ensure that proper meter readings are taken rather than relying on estimated bills.

INSIDE EDUCATION 

MINISTER Angie Motshekga’s Department of Basic Education is, according to the Office of the Auditor General (AG), one of the “worst offenders” among government departments when it comes to fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

A briefing to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations last week by AG Tsakani Maluleke’s office brought to light that 21 of 41 departments at national level “consistently incurred fruitless and wasteful expenditure over the past five years” according to a Parliamentary Communication Services statement.

The Department of Basic Education, according to the Parliamentary statement, is the biggest contributor to the overall R1.52 billion in fruitless and wasteful expenditure over the past five years.

The AG told the committee that some departments had consistently incurred fruitless and wasteful expenditure over the past five years.

“Out of 41 national departments, 21 of them incurred R1.52 billion in fruitless and wasteful expenditure during this time,” it said.

The Auditor-General during the meeting highlighted that the biggest contributors to this large sum are the Departments of Defence at R460.09 million, National Treasury at R339.47 million, Basic Education at R106.85 million and Tourism at R92.59 million.

Most of the wasteful expenditure occurred in procurement, payment and resource management.

The Auditor-General said that 29 percent of national departments are in good financial health, 62 percent are cause for concern and nine percent require urgent intervention.

INSIDE EDUCATION

With immense pride, the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies announces their newest PhD graduate, Dr Mpho-Entle Puleng Modise. She is an inspiration to all and embodies the power of a woman dedicated to achieving her dreams. Modise started her journey at Unisa in 2001 in the Web section of the Department of Institutional Advancement and later worked as the Communication and Marketing Officer of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI).

Modise left Unisa after it merged with two other institutions. However, she later returned to the university to work as the Departmental Secretary and Personal Assistant to Prof Pinkie Mabunda and Prof Geesje van den Berg in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies. She worked her way up by completing her Certificate of Technology in Distance Education and e-Learning in 2014 at the University of Maryland Global College (UMUG), previously UMUC, USA.In 2016, she completed her Master of Educationin Open and Distance Learning (ODL) with distinction from Unisa. In 2018, she was employed as a Lecturer in the College of Education, where she proved to be a valuable addition to academia.

She recently completed her PhD study, Academic professional development and support of academics for digital transformation in African large scale open and distance education institutions. Her students and colleagues respect Modise for her remarkable work ethic and dedication to excellence in her academic career. Her PhD supervisor, Prof Geesje van den Berg, says she met Modise in 2012 when she was Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies.

She adds that she was impressed by her work ethic and extraordinary determination to get things done, no matter how small the task was. “Our paths crossed again when she enrolled for the MEd in ODL as I acted as the programme coordinator. Her determination – something I noticed when meeting her – became clear again as she passed her mini dissertation with distinction,” she said.

When Modise approached Van den Berg to be her supervisor for her doctorate,  she knew it would be a productive and rewarding experience. Prof Olaf Zawacki from Oldenburg University in Germany acted as the Co-Supervisor and added tremendous value to her studies mainly because of his renowned expertise in systematic literature reviews. Her hard work and determination paid off when she completed her doctorate earlier this year. “I am incredibly proud of her and know this is only the beginning.

“I am looking forward to her future accomplishments as an academic,” Van den Berg says. She adds: “Her achievements should inspire other academics and non-academics.”

Prof Pinkie Mabunda says she has known Modise since Unisa first employed her. “I worked closely with Modise and enjoyed collaborating with her. She has proven to be an inspiration and an incredible example,” she says. Mabuda says Modise’s move from marketing and communication to working as a departmental secretary displayed confidence. She says: “I intuitively knew when I interviewed her for the position of departmental secretary that she was an academic star in the making.”

Mabunda added that after Modise obtained a master’s degree with distinction and recently her doctorate, she has seen abundant evidence of what remarkable courage, marked enthusiasm and good work ethic can achieve for those seeking to thrive in the academic environment. “Modise’s focus and contribution to digital transformation in the context of open and distance education are critical for the College of Education and Unisa,” says Mabunda. She adds: “During all her academic work, Modise also found the energy, time and skills for her other roles as mother, wife, sister, aunt and African woman. She embodies the power of a woman dedicated to achieving her personal and academic ambitions.”

There is always help in the dry valleys

Asked where or how she finds her motivation, Modise says: “There is always help in the dry valleys or up the mountains. God is always nearby, sending an angel or two when the need arises.” Modise believes that where there is a will, there is always a way. “I had help, my family, Prof Mabunda and Prof van den Berg, and a whole list of other special people in my acknowledgements in my thesis. So I can say never be shy to ask for help and never be afraid to start from scratch,” Modise says. 

She explains that after being unemployed for almost four years, after leaving Unisa during the merger, even with her Honours degree at the time and a good few years of work experience, she still couldn’t find work, so she was desperate. Finally, in 2010, she was prepared to be a tea lady even with all her qualifications, skills and experience. Fortunately, she was called for an interview at TMALI for a communication and marketing officer post and was hired on a contractual basis.

She kept applying for other posts during her tenure, which is how she landed the departmental secretary/personal assistant post. The post was, fortunately, a permanent one which gave her job security. Modise says: “Prof Mabunda has always been supportive and knew I had a lot more to offer, and when I asked for time off from the PA work, she was the first to tell me I needed a bigger platform for my skills and talents.”

She adds: “When the UMGC (previously UMUC) programme started in our department, Prof van den Berg knew I was the right person to join the team. I have worked hard to be where I am today.” She adds: “Most importantly, I was supported−often by my female colleagues and mentors.” She concludes: Always remember that there is support and help, but one must step out and avail themselves. I am grateful for this achievement, and I look forward to more blessings and help from God and the angels he will send in times of need.” 

UNISA